Bath drain lift assembly



July 16, 19768 w. E. PoLlTz BATH DRAIN LIFT ASSEMBLY Filed Oct. 4, 1965 NVENTOR. WIL L /A M E'. /QwL/Tz United States Patent O 3,392,409 BATH DRAIN LEFT ASSEMBLY William E. Politz, Delphi, Ind., assignor to Stephen A. Young, Monticello, Ind. Filed Oct. 4, 1965, Ser. No. 492,733 8 Claims. (Cl. 4-199) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention discloses a bath drain of the trip lever type which provides automatic initial adjustment of the shut-olf member in such bath drain when the same is initially assembled after installation on a tub or similar location. The connection between the lift wire provided in such a mechanism and the shut-off member itself, is such as to permit relative movement of one with respect to the other initially, and thereafter by reason of the connection positive actuation of such shut-off member upon manipulation of a lever in the bath drain to raise and lower such shut-off member.

This invention relates to bath drains and more particularly to the type of drain known as a trip lever.

The reason for the particular applicability of this invention to the trip lever construction of drain is that Such type involves the use of an interiorly mounted plug or shut-off member which is raised and lowered by a lever known as a trip lever, this lever being mounted in such a position as to be manipulated by the user of tub in which a drain of this class is installed.

With the foregoing generally in mind, and bearing in mind further that the trip lever construction itself is only altered in the sense of the operating means involved therein, it is a particular object of this invention to provide a trip lever bath drain of the class described in which the initial installation of the trip lever on the bath tube is markedly facilitated by reason of the simplifying of the connection of the shut-off member with the trip lever operating unit which is mounted in the overow head.

In accordance with conventional construction of trip lever drains, a waste arm extends from a Waste outlet in the tub to a T, the T in turn having an over-flow arm extending upwardly to an over-flow head which is mounted in the bath tub so that if the tub is lled to this point the further filling will cause the water to ilow through the over-flow arm and out into the waste.

In the broadest possible sense, the use of this particular invention makes a bath drain of this class virtually universally applicable, since the over-flow openings in many tubs might vary and by using a trip lever drain in which the over-flow arm is adjustable, the means hereof, and set forth in further description of this invention makes possible the rapid adjustment of the shut-olf member with respect to the means irrespective of the relative height of the over-flow opening of a tub with respect to the T to which the over-flow arm is connected.

More particularly, the object of this invention is to provide a means for adjusting the position of the shutolf member and operating lever, so that the plumber will not be compelled to withdraw the inner assembly and make adjustments as formerly was the case but on the contrary will be able to initially assemble the entire bath unit when installing the same without making any further adjustments at all.

Another object of the invention is to so form the parts of this device and the mechanism hereof, that installation can be made by anyone whether skilled or not, and shut otf of the ow of water through the T is controlled 3,392,409 Patented July 16, 1968 ACC irrespective of any initial setting of the respective parts prior to any actual installation.

A further object of the invention is to provide connecting means and an arrangement that will facilitate the adjustment of the shut-off member with respect to the lever for operating the same instantly upon initial insertion of the member in the body of the trip lever as is commonly the case, but overcoming the common requirement that subsequent adjustment has always heretofore been required.

With the foregoing in mind, and the general objects suggested thereby, other and further specific objects of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the specification appended hereto and disclosed in the drawing wherein;

FIGURE 1 is a Vertical sectional view through a typical trip lever drain, in which the novel elements of this invention have been incorporated, showing in dotted lines a bath tub for the purposes of illustration and indicating the mounting of the trip lever thereon.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view showing the trip lever T and shut-olf member in order to illustrate in greater detail and more clearly the interconnection of the lift member and shut-off member.

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of FIGURE 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the trip lever drain here disclosed, is shown as being mounted on a bath tub indicated in dotted lines at 1, the trip lever drain being comprised of a waste arm generally denoted 2 which as indicated is adjustable by means of the slip nut 3 and packing 4 provided therein, with the arm at one end being connected to the waste outlet of the tu-b 1 at S.

The other end of the waste arm 2 is connected to a waste T 6 in a generally conventional manner as indicated by the threaded connection 7.

The waste T 6 includes an outlet at 8 and a shut-off opening or drain opening 9 which is more particularly indicated in FIGURE 2 as leading to the waste outlet 8 and intended to be controlled as to water flow therethrough by means of a shut-off member designated 10 to be more particularly described hereinafter.

Extending upwardly fro-m the T 6, and connected thereto as by the threaded connection 11, is the over-flow arm generally denoted 12, which is comprised of a lower section 13 in which the upper section 14 is telescopically positioned and suitably sealingly engaged therewith by the slip nut 15 and associated packing therein.

At the upper end of the over-flow arm 12, is mounted an over-How head 17 as by the threaded connection 18 indicated, the over-flow head being positioned at the overflow opening of the tub 1 and maintained in conjunction therewith by means of a conventional lockplate so called indicated at 19 and the machine screws 20 indicated in position in the lockplate.

Suitably mounted in a faceplate 21 the faceplate being connected to the loclcplate 19 by means not shown but conventionally provided, is a lever unit 22 involving a lever 23 having a ball section 24 about centrally thereof, and mounted in a suitable opening in the faceplate 21.

Behind the faceplate 21 is a spring washer arrangement 25, adapted to cooperate with cam surfaces likewise conventional so as to maintain the lever in either the upwardly disclosed position of the FIGURE l or oppositely thereto so to speak so as to raise and lower the shut-oit member 10 in a manner now to be described as to the connection therewith.

The lever 23 includes an inner end 27 to which is fastened a lift wire or rod 28, the rod 28 being provided with a loop 29 at the upper end thereof engaging the 3 inner end 27 of the lever 23, the lower end of the rod 28 being entered between gripping parts 30 and 31 which are formed in the top of the shut-off member 10.

The shut-olic member as illustrated, is a cylindrical member generally cup-shaped with areas indicated at 32 and 33 formed by punching out and bending upwardly the central parts 34 and 35 respectively which in effect in conjunction with the section 36 remaining provide a bail extending across the cylindrical member and out of which area 36 are formed the members 30 and 31.

A suitable round opening in this instance is pierced centrally of the bail 36 so as to receive the rod 28, and since it is of smaller diameter than the rod, when the rod is forced thereinto will cause the ends 30 and 31 to bend into the position shown in FIGURE 2.

With this construction in mind, when the drain has initially been installed as to the waste and over-flow arras thereof with the overflow head in position, the end 38 of the rod 28 is initially entered between the parts 30 and 31 so as to be gripped thereby and thereafter the shut-off member 10 is inserted through the over-flow opening in the tub and over-flow head, caused to move downwardly in the over-fiow arm 12, the rod 28 being flexible to permit this, until the lever unit 22 is in position as indicated in FIGURE 1.

The lever unit with the lever thereof held in the position disclosed, will cause the rod 28 to move downwardly between the parts 30 and 31 when the shut-off member 10 has moved on to the seat at the drain opening 9. Since this will probably not `permit the lever unit to be completely positioned at this time, further pressure downwardly on the rod 28 will cause the same to move further downwardly between the parts 30 and 31 until the lever unit is able to be inserted in and mounted correctly on the loekplate 19 previously referred to, Ibeing Supported on the faceplate 21 likewise mentioned by means which are conventional but not illustrated in detail.

In any event at this time the shut-off member 10 will be fully seated at the drain opening 9, the end 38 of the rod 28 will have moved downwardly to some position not necessarily predetermined, but when the lever unit 22 is thereafter manipulated, it will be observed that the parts 30 and 31 interengage with the rod 28 so that subsequent manipulation of the rod upwardly and downwardly by the lever unit 22 `will compel the member 10 to be raised and lowered and thus open and close the drain opening 9 in the conventional manner.

It is pointed out that by this construction, virtually any length of over-flow arm may be accommodated for by causing the rod 28 to pass downwardly suiciently far between the parts 30 and 31 so that the operating action of the lever unit can take place, at the same time facilitating the rasing and lowering of the member ltl when manipulation is resorted to.

Under some conditions it may be found desirable to lock the rod 28 in its ultimate position between the parts 30 and 31, provision of a member such as indicated in FIGURE 2 denoted 40 can be made, this being in essence like a section of the bail 36 as will be noted, involving parts 41 and 42 bent out of a body 43 in the opposite direction from the parts 30 and 31 with the rod 28 passing therebetween.

It ywill be understood that this part may be positioned initially, sufficiently spaced from the bail 36 so that when the shut-off member 10 has been positioned as initially described, the same may be withdrawn by withdrawing the lever unit 22, and then the part involving the body 40 moved downwardly into position against the bail 36, whereby subsequent movement of the rod 28 with respect to these parts will be precluded, since the parts 30 and 31 act oppositely to parts 41 and 42 in their gripping action. It will be understood however that the part 40 is only provided Where it is felt that it is required or desirable and is not actually necessary to be furnished to make the unit operative as initially described.

In view of the foregoing, it will be seen that the installation of a bath drain is very rapidly effected by the provision of the connecting means and shut-olf member and the connection thereof so that adjusment can virtually instantly `be made in substantially any length of over-flow arm within presently known dimensions.

I claim:

1. In bath drain construction of the class described, in combination, a waste T, a drain opening in the T, a waste arm connecting the T and a tub outlet, an overow arm extending from the T to an overflow head at a tub overflow opening, an operating lever unit in the head, a shut-off member in the T, and connecting means between the shut-off member and lever unit initially selfadjusting whereby to effect automatic closing adjustment of elements of the connecting means when the operating lever unit and shut-olf member are in closed position.

2. In bath drain construction of the class described, in combination, a waste T, a drain opening in the T, a waste arm connecting the T and a tub outlet, an overow arm extending from the T to an over-flow head at a tub over-flow opening, an operating lever unit in the head, a shut-off member in the T, connecting means between the shut-oil member and lever unit initially selfadjusting whereby to effect automatic closing adjustment of elements of the connecting means when the operating lever unit and shut-off member are in closed position, and means to maintain the adjusted relation of the unit and shut-off member.

3. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connecting means includes gripping parts and a lift member engaging the same, said parts facilitating one way movement of the member with respect thereto for length adjustment.

4. In bath drain construction of the class described, in combination, a waste T, a drain opening in the T, a waste arm connecting the T and a tub outlet, an over-ow arm extending from the T to an over-flow head at a tub over-flow opening, an operating lever unit in the head, a shut-off member in the T, connecting means between the shut-off member and lever unit initially self-adjusting whereby to effect positioning of the shut-off member in closed position when the lever unit is initially mounted at the over-flow head for subsequent manipulation to open and closed positions thereafter.

5. The combination as claimed in claim 4, wherein the connecting means comprises a lift rod extending from the lever unit to the shut-olf member, and the shut-olf member includes a portion to grip the rod for movement therewith.

'6. The combination as claimed in claim 4, wherein the connecting means comprises a lift rod extending from the lever unit to the shut-olf member, the shut-off member includes a portion to positively grip the rod for movement in one direction and frictionally grip the same for movement in the other direction.

7. The combination as claimed in claim 6, wherein means are provided to positively grip the rod for movement in said other direction.

8. The combination as claimed in claim 4, where the length of the over-flow arm is adjustable and the connecting means is correspondingly adjustable.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,235,622 8/1917 White et al 85--36 X 2,486,246 10/1949 Beeke 4l- 199 X 2,871,487 2/1959 Fife 4-199 3,325,198 6/1967 Cruse 85-36 X 3,307,206 3/1967 Kreuger 4-199 HAROLD J. GROSS, Prima/'y Excl/flirter. 

